We Already Have An Open Culture… Don’t We?

Foundations for High Performing Teams

‘We have an open doors policy’, many management teams proudly declare.

Which is a crowd-pleaser, but also makes great business sense. Great leaders want to be aware of pain points as soon as possible, allowing them to troubleshoot and innovate, before anything escalates. Leaving the door open for brave souls to self-elect for entry, however, is not enough. Not only does the door have to be open, people have to be invited in and welcome to approach. There has to be great trust that sharing an issue will not lead to negative consequences.

Recently I have been working with several people on the issue of psychological safety in organisations and how this is created. Let’s start with why safe cultures are crucial for any high performing organisation. And I will stress that point – safe cultures are the foundation for greatness, and not for those who simply want to be mediocre. Sometimes creating safety does not feel nice. Psychologically safe teams are not afraid to surface and discuss the ‘not pretty’ topics. They encourage people to, kindly and compassionately, challenge each other. They have a shared vision and are willing to try new things to succeed.

Fail, Fail, and Fail Again

Psychologically safe teams fail a lot.  Which is really hard.

Anyone who has achieved great things knows that failure is part of the journey. For example, James Dyson famously went through over 5,127 different prototypes of his bagless vacuum cleaner before arriving at the successful design (in 2025, Dyson was worth 15.2 billion USD). Amy Edmonson’s leading research in the topic from 1999 demonstrated that, contrary to expectations, the most successful medical teams reported more mistakes. This wasn't because they were worse at their jobs, but because they were more willing to openly discuss errors and prevent future harm. 

In life or death situations, it makes sense that medical teams would want to share mistakes in order to never repeat them. This mindset can be embraced in any environment, even when there are not fatal consequences. However, we are so busy sharing our wins and gold star moments that it can feel super exposing and vulnerable to share lessons with our Teams. Yet, one never learns from success. Psychological safety is not about low accountability and excusing poor performance – it is about creating learning environments that allow us to learn from each other and pivot quickly.

Safe to Play

Innovation and creativity are crucial to the modern knowledge economy. We need new ideas and ways of working to give us a competitive advantage. I’ll be exploring these concepts at an upcoming innovation year-end exchange event, Tectonic Night Summit, on December 10th. We will have some quick and fun team games for people to try  - along with some branded bunting and festive headbands. These games are not about being childish and glib – they give the structure to form the foundation from which we can explore and experiment. In workplaces, psychological safety allows us to share new ideas and learn from mistakes. In games, those same principles appear naturally: we collaborate, experiment, laugh when things go wrong and celebrate effort as much as success.

Here’s an overview of the games that we will be playing:

Snow Shovel (Risk & Reward Race)

·        Players try to move cotton balls using a spatula one-handed.

·        Learning links to permission to fail, trying again & peer encouragement.

·        Debrief: What helps you keep trying when things get tricky?

Hungry Hungry Reindeer (The Great Grab Off)

·        Players race to collect as many cotton balls as possible using cups attached to their hands.

·        Learning links to staying composed during competition and adapting to challenges.

·        Debrief: How can we make our team environment more like this,  where it’s okay to fail quickly and try again?

Winter LEGO Challenge (Innovation Sprint)

·        Each player gets up to 1 minute to build a mystery winter item with LEGO and everyone else races to guess what it is.

·        Links to innovation & creative risk-taking.

·        Debrief: What might happen if you brought this same spirit of experimentation into your meetings or projects?

Candy Cane String Cup (The Trust Test)

·        Players try to get candy canes into the cup by working together and moving a piece of string.

·        Requires patience & teamwork.

·        Debrief: How do you build trust in small ways day-to-day?

Knockdown Blowout (Puff Power Challenge)

• Using party hooters, blow marshmallows off the cups as fast as possible.

• Requires confidence, resilience and humour in failure.

• Debrief: What does it feel like and look like when a team celebrates effort, not just outcomes?

Flip Cup Tic Tac Toe (Strategic Strike)

• Players flip cups marked X or O. If you land the cup X or O up, you can play on the grid. First to get three in a row wins!

• Requires repeated attempts under pressure and staying focused.

• Debrief: How did you handle it when your plan didn’t go as expected?

Permission to Try and Try Again

As you can see, many of the lessons and learnings from quick party games can be linked to how innovative teams operate. This exhibition will invite participants to rediscover the power of play and what it teaches us about innovation. Psychological safety isn’t about everyone ‘just having fun’ and saying what they want. An environment becomes psychologically safe when there has been careful consideration to create the container for creativity. Rules, timing, and expert facilitation give participants the permission and protection they need to try, fail and try again, safely. And we can have a giggle along the way.

Sound like fun? Make sure you get a ticket to Tectonic Night Summit on December 10th, or get in touch with me to explore my workshops and offerings around psychological safety.